3 Auschwitz guard suspects released from custody

FILE - In this Oct. 19, 2012 file photo the entrance with the inscription "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Sets You Free) gate of the former German Nazi death camp of Auschwitz is pictured at the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial in Oswiecim, Poland. A 94-year-old man, deported from the U.S. for lying about his Nazi past, is unfit for trial on allegations he was an accessory to thousands of murders as an SS guard at Auschwitz, a German court said Friday, Feb. 28, 2014. The Ellwangen state court said Hans Lipschis is suffering from “worsening dementia” and could not be tried. He was charged with 10,510 counts of accessory to murder on allegations he served as a guard at the death camp from 1941 to 1943. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski, File)

BERLIN (AP) – Three elderly men alleged to have served as SS guards at the Auschwitz death camp have been released from custody, but prosecutors say the investigation against them continues.

Stuttgart prosecutors’ spokeswoman Claudia Krauth said a 92-year-old suspect was released Thursday but had to pay a bond and give up his passport. A 94-year-old and an 88-year-old were released over the past week.

Krauth says her office didn’t object because it was not necessary for the investigation to have the three in custody. They were all incarcerated in February after prosecutors said there was significance evidence that they could be charged as accessories to murder for serving as Auschwitz guards.

Krauth says “that suspicion hasn’t changed.”

They’re among about 30 Auschwitz guards under investigation nationwide.

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